Hey, How's it going, Dave2D here
So Asus makes the Zenbook Line
they have big ones, they have small ones.
This is they're latest thin and light Ultrabook
Its the S13, and what makes this device special
is; the very thin bezels.
So, this device has, what I think are,
the thinnest bezels on an ultra book.
They've done it to fit a relatively large
screen on a smaller chassis.
So this is a 13.9 inch screen on a chassis
that would traditionally only hold a 13 inch screen.
So, it's a bigger screen for a smaller footprint.
And in doing so they've been forced to make this
Notch or hump thing at the top of the screen.
Now, for most people they're going to look
at this notch, or hump, annnnd it looks weird, right?
This is not how normal laptops are built.
So, when I first this thing in pictures at CES
I was like, that's weird, right?
I don't know if I love this design.
But having used this for a little while
I dont find it that offensive.
When you have it closed it serves
as a little grip, or tab to lift the screen
and it works but, its weird because
there's a protrusion on the device
and its just, most devices, most laptops
dont have protrusions like this.
But, I like what they are trying to do.
The reason why they have this protrusion
is because they had to house the camera
at the top of the screen.
and they've done it in a way that looks
really nice, but it is strange
to have a protrusion at the top of
the laptop. Now the display itself
is quite nice. It's a 1080p screen, color accurate,
very bright: 400 nits, its brighter than a lot
of other 1080p screens I;ve used in the ultrabook
market and because of the hinge it almost
hides the bottom bezel competly and gives you very clean
looking visuals.
The port selection is ok,
there's 2 USB-c, 1 USB-a. the USB-c's do not support thunderbolt 3,
which is a bit of a shame,
there's micro SD and a headphone jack.
theres one thing that I like about the Zenbook
which other, older, Zenbooks don't have
its the fact that they include a USB-c charger.
All the older models have used a barrel plug
which i hate for 2018 and 2019.
they finally switched over to a regular USB-c
like universal charging and thats very nice.
OK, keyboard and track pad,
it lifts the back of the device,
they call it ERGOlift, when you lift it up, its about this tilt.
Some people hate this, somepeople
really like it, personally, I find it enjoyable, the tilt.
the tilt. It's very slight, I know a lot of people are like,
"hey, you have tilted keyboards, its really
annoying it gives you carple tunnel
Its such a slight tilt.
Its probably like 2 or 3 degrees
its very slight and I think for most
people the will enjoy it
but its something that you should probably try out in a
store if you can before you commit to this keyboard.
But the actual tying experience is good
Good layout, nice and spacious.
The key stroke are a little softer,
the mechinism theyre using tends
to bounce the key back up, it could be a little
stiffer, but I think most people will get used
to this easily. Now the trackpad
has Windows precision drivers
its a nice track pad, but they have this
option, where you can get an illuminated
keypad on the trackpad.
Now it looks really cool in pictures and videos,
but, having used it in other devices that they
make, its not as useful as you might think.
The reason that you'd want a number pad on a laptop
is for speed of numerical inputs, right?
You'd think that by pressing the numbers it'd be
easier than using the numbers on the top of the keyboard, annnnnd
in theory it would be, the problem is that,
there's no tactile feedback when you press the numbers
on the trackpad, and there's a bit of input lag when
you press it, so; its cool in theory, but in it's current
state, at least the last version that tried,
its pretty mediocre, its really cool looking,
but, like I said in the last video,
dont purchase this device just for that light up pad.
Performance - The CPU on this thing is
the 8th gen Wisky Lake, it turbos a little bit
faster that the last generation, but its still 8th gen CPU
and its still a 4 core CPU.
The GPU in here is an MX150,
This particular unit, I believe is running a 25 watt version,
it clocks pretty fast and the 3D mark scores
in line with a 25 watt version, but,
this is an engineering sample so I'm not sure
sure how the retail units will play out.
Despite the MX150, and a pretty powerful CPU,
there is a reaitivly large drop
on this device, and its the thermals.
This device has two fans, and when it idle
the whole thing is pretty much silent, which is great.
but even when is running bench marks
its still very quiet, and it shouldn't be, because
the CPU in here, both CPU and GPU, are capable of
pushing out a lot of performance, and a lot o heat.
the thing is, i ran some fan control apps
i ran some manual fan control software
and the fans can get quite loud, and when they
do thermals are great. the problem is
in its current state, theres no way to control
those fans through Asus' software
they dont have any kind of fan control
and I get it, its a Zenbook, it not
a gaming device, but its capible of pushing
out decent frame rates in games, but
because of the thermal situation this is put in, it can't.
Now, I'm not sure if Asus is doing this because
they dont want it to get to loud for the user
or they dont want it to be to complitcated to have
users switch between fan profiles and stuff.
But, there are a lot of users, I know some of you are like,
you would use something like this, you want a
device that has an MX150, a quad core CPU that can play
games a little on the side.
but this is so gimped, because of the fans.
Inside you're also seeing a replacable NVME,
but the ram and the WiFi card are built on board.
It's a 50 watt hour battery, I got a little less than
7 hours of battery life, with the screen at 250 nits.
And this is an engineering sample
I feel like the retail version will probably
tweak that a little bit better.
In its current state, a little less than 7 hours.
Speakers are good, theyre not amazingly positioned
theyre on the bottom, and because of the ERGO lift
theres a chamber of "emptyness" underneath that the
sound kind of reverbs a little bit.
it gets reasonably loud, but its not super clean audio.
a device like this, if your interisted in buying one,
the pricing, im not sure yet.
I'd imangine it'll be around $1000 for a base
that always where the Zenbooks kind of start.
if you're interisted in buting this, your
probably looking at something like the XPS 13
or the Razr Blade Stealth, and those are all great devices,
the advantage here is, without a doubt, the athetics.
that super thin bezel is something that is unique to this.
but, its hard to recomend one of these over the other
theyre all really good, this hump, I think
most people will just get used to it.
It may look starnge at first, but once you own it
i think most people will think it looks fine.
The device on the whole, great hardware, I just wish there
was some kind of software for fan control
so that for users who really want that extra kick
out of their system, they could get it.
But in the current form, it can't.
OK. Hope you guys enjoyed this video
Thumbs if you liked it, Subs if you loved it, see you guys next time.